photo by Lnk.Si

Less syrup, more pancakes!

The end of ornamentation for the sake of it.

I am not confident on the origin of the expression, it might have been the movie Juice from 92 when the character Trip played by Samuel L. Jackson says: “Just ‘cause you pour syrup on something doesn’t make it pancakes!”, but no one put it better then Draplin when it comes to our industry. Borrowing from his page on ‘Things we say’ : “Syrup on shit doesn’t make it a pancake.”

Now, more then ever, I totally identify with this. In an industry clogged with embellishments and unnecessary metaphors, I welcome this recent change to a more streamlined design focused on authenticity and clarity to let content be content.

I hate the expression ‘flat design’, especially because of the way it has been used and thrown around in the last semester but if that is gonna stop yet another to-do app that is a simple exercise of measuring who can do the most photo realistic notepad, then I’ll embrace it.

Don’t take me wrong, I love my pancakes with syrup but like the expression above emphasises, if you have a useless, devoid of value app, it doesn’t matter how many of those awesome overseas 3D designers you wire Paypal dollars to, it’s still going to be subpar.

I’ll leave you with another thought that I think will help us designers on this new era of touch interfaces. The importance of creating instead of simply choosing.

From a book I recently finished, Chasing the Perfect by Natalia Ilyin:

…designers have always been choosers, rather then creators. Traditionally we put things together - type and image…we don’t take the picture or design the type.

Sadly this is true for the most part and just as I have been trying to challenge myself, I challenge you too: Focus on creating your own interactions and animations instead of selecting from the standard ones Apple gives you. Create your own type, take your own pictures, design your own icons. Be a creator whenever you can and take control of your own work.

Edit 1: Fixed typos and added tags.

👋 Hi! I am a Product Designer @Facebook in London. I was born in Portugal and have lived in Spain and the UK.

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